In a discussion of Civil Rights in America, how often do you hear the name of Republican Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL)? Not often. How often do you hear the name of Democrat Senator Robert Byrd in connection to civil rights? Not often but for very different reasons. Dirksen was a champion for civil rights. Robert Byrd was not. But you do hear the name of Senator Strom Thurmond practically spat from the mouths of those accusing Republicans for the plight of NegrosAfrican-Americans Blacks, but Strom Thurmond was a Democrat in those days, and he was VERY active in trying to kill the civil rights bill. It was later that Thurmond became a Republican. Most people do not know that.

An agenda can be identified by what is NOT being said. The names of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Everett Dirksen and the many Republicans who fought for, and or/voted for the civil rights bill are never uttered. Neither is it mentioned that Republicans voted for the Civil Rights bill in far greater percentages than did Democrats, or that Democrats had a sufficient majority to pass it without a single Republican vote.

As President of the Senate, Nixon witnessed Democrat Senator Strom Thurmond and his single-man filibuster to prohibit black voting rights…a filibuster which went on for 24 hours and 18 minutes straight on the Senate floor. Democrat Senator Robert Byrd filibustered for 18 hours.

He was the master key to victory for the civil Rights Act of 1964. Without him and the Republican vote, the Act would have been dead in the water for years to come. LBJ and Humphrey knew that without Dirksen the civil Rights Act was going nowhere.

Why did Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey (both Democrats) think they had to have Dirksen? Simply because their own Democrat majority in both chambers would not carry the vote. The Senate had a final voting share of 65%, Republicans 35%. Only 51 votes were needed for passage in a Senate with 65 seated Democrats. In the House Democrats had a 59% voting share to the Republican’s 41%. Eighty-two percent of Republicans voted for passage of the joint Senate-House bill. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats voted for passage.

Dirksen became a tireless supporter, suffering bouts of ill health because of his efforts in behalf of crafting and passing the Civil Rights Act. Nonetheless, Sen. Kirksen suffered the same fate as many Republicans and conservatives do today.

Even though Dirksen had an exemplary voting record in support of bills furthering the cause of African-Americans, activists groups in Illinois did not support Dirksen for re-election to the Senate in 1962.

Blacks African-Americans didn’t trust Dirksen. Take a look at this odd story:

African American groups in Illinois had not supported Dirksen for reelection to the Senate in 1962 and suspected his loyalty to African Americans during the civil rights debate. African American organizations knew the importance of Dirksen’s vote and intended to force him to support an unchanged H. R. 7152 by demonstrating and picketing his Chicago office. James Farmer, director of CORE, publicly declared that there would be “extensive demonstrations” in Illinois against the Senator personally. Farmer added that “people will march en masse to the post offices there to file handwritten letters” protesting Dirksen’s ambivalent attitude…

The protestors had almost directly the opposite impact. Dirksen strongly objected to what he believed were uncalled-for tactics by African American groups; he resented their lack of trust in his judgment and his favorable civil rights record.

On February 17, 1964, Dirksen complained on the Senate floor about the harassment and let it be known that such pressure would not affect his judgment.

“When the day comes that picketing, distress, duress, and coercion can push me from the rock of conviction, that is the day,” Dirksen announced, “that I shall gather up my togs and walk out of here and say that my usefulness in the Senate has come to an end.”

Richard Russell, leader of the filibuster forces, thought that Dirksen might desert the civil rights proponents because of the incident, but the minority leader did not forsake the northern Democrats. Hubert Humphrey made sure, however, that African American groups did not risk Dirksen’s support by similar tactics. Click here. Source: Congress Link

The key to the protest mentioned above and conversation about H.R. 7152 involved changing legislation necessary to become law. As I understand it, CORE knew Dirksen would support the legislation but tried to intimidate him into supporting it exactly as CORE wanted it. Apparently, had it ended there, there would have been no Civil Rights Bill:

During the first week in May, Dirksen began talks in his office with Senate Democratic and Republican civil rights advocates and with Justice Department officials to achieve an acceptable package of civil rights legislation. On May 13, after 52 days of filibuster and five negotiation sessions, Dirksen, Humphrey, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy agreed to propose a “clean bill” as a substitute for H. R. 7152. Senators Dirksen, Mansfield, Humphrey, and Kuchel would cosponsor the substitute. This agreement did not mean the end of the filibuster, but it did provide Dirksen with a compromise measure which was crucial to obtain the support of the “swing” Republicans.

The compromise civil rights bill worked out in Dirksen’s office did not seriously weaken the original H. R. 7152 . The bargainers were careful not to include any changes that might cause the House to reconsider the entire bill once the Senate had finished its work.

The “clean bill” made somewhat over seventy changes in H. R. 7152 , most of them concerning wording and punctuation and most of them designed to win over reluctant Republicans and to allow cloture.

The major change in what was called the Dirksen-Mansfield substitute was to lessen the emphasis on federal enforcement in cases of fair employment and public accommodations violations. The substitute gave higher priority to voluntary compliance than the House bill. It encouraged more private, rather than official, legal initiatives. The compromise also reserved a period for voluntary compliance before the U.S. Attorney General could act in discrimination suits.

What Dirksen had done was to put together a substitute for the House-passed H. R. 7152 that was near enough to the original version that it satisfied the Justice Department and the bipartisan civil rights coalition in Congress, and sufficiently different in tone and emphasis to win a few Republican converts to support cloture…

…the Senate passed the bill by a 73 to 27 roll call vote. Six Republicans and 21 Democrats held firm and voted against passage. In all, the the 1964 civil rights debate had lasted a total of 83 days, slightly over 730 hours, and had taken up almost 3,000 pages in the Congressional Record. Source: Congress Link

The history of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is an example of Senate leadership, none of which we’ve seen even a glimpse of since Harry Reid became Senate Majority leader in January 2005.

Back to Diane Alden’s account:

On May 19, Dirksen called a press conference, told the gathering about the moral need for a civil rights bill. On June 10, 1964, with all 100 senators present, Dirksen rose from his seat to address the Senate. By this time he was very ill from the killing work he had put in on getting the bill passed. In a voice reflecting his fatigue, he still spoke from the heart…and ended with “it must not be stayed or denied.”

Lest it get lost in the discussion, is this important question to Senator Dirksen and his answer:

After the civil rights bill was passed, Dirksen was asked why he had done it. What could possibly be in for him given the fact that the African-Americans in his own state had not voted for him? Why should he champion a bill that be in their interest? Why should he offer himself as a crusader in this cause?

Dirksen’s reply speaks well for the man, for Republicans and for conservatives like him: “I am involved in mankind, and whatever the skin, we are all included in mankind.”

Let me be the first to admit that I was in error in estimating your preliminary announcements and moves…But there were certain realities which had to be taken into account in advancing this legislation to a vote. Out of your long experience you devised an approach which seemed to you to offer a chance for success. The resounding vote of 71-29 June 10 to shut off debate tended mightily to reinforce your judgment and to vindicate your procedure.

It is significant that 27 of the 33 Republican Senators voted for cloture, the first time it it has ever been imposed on a civil rights bill debate.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored people sends it’s thanks to you for your vote for cloture and for your final speech before the vote on Wednesday which cited the war service of millions of American Negro citizens. These have indeed, fought and died to preserve or to advance democracy abroad…

With the passage of the bill, with or without your amendments intact, the cause of human rights and the commitment of a great, democrativ government to protect the guarantees embodied in its constitution will have taken a giant step forward. Your leadership of the Republican party in the Senate at this turning point will become a significant part of the history of this century. (signature not clear).

President Eisenhower appointed prominent blacks to prominent and important jobs in his administration, and other administrations followed: E. Frederick Morrow, J. Ernest Wilkens to Assistant Secretary of Labor, Scovel Richardson as Chairman of the U.S. Board of Parole, Charles Mahoney as the first Black full delegate to the U.N. from the U.S., Clifton R. Wharton as Minister to Rumania and George M. Johnson and J. Ernest Wilkens as members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

May 30, 1854: Democrat President Franklin Pierce signs Democrats’ Kansas-Nebraska Act, expanding slavery into U.S. territories; opponents unite to form the Republican Party

June 16, 1854: Newspaper editor Horace Greeley calls on opponents of slavery to unite in the Republican Party

July 6, 1854: First state Republican Party officially organized in Jackson, Michigan, to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

February 11, 1856: Republican Montgomery Blair argues before U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of his client, the slave Dred Scott; later served in [Republican] President Lincoln’s Cabinet

February 22, 1856: First national meeting of the Republican Party, in Pittsburgh, to coordinate opposition to Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

March 27, 1856: First meeting of Republican National Committee in Washington, DC to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

May 22, 1856: For denouncing Democrats’ pro-slavery policy, Republican U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) is beaten nearly to death on floor of Senate by U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC), takes three years to recover

March 6, 1857: Republican Supreme Court Justice John McLean issues strenuous dissent from decision by 7 Democrats in infamous Dred Scott case that African-Americans had no rights “which any white man was bound to respect”

June 26, 1857: former Congressman Abraham Lincoln, now a private citizen, declares Republican position that slavery is “cruelly wrong,” while Democrats “cultivate and excite hatred” for blacks

October 13, 1858: During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee

October 25, 1858: U.S. Senator William Seward (R-NY) describes Democratic Party as “inextricably committed to the designs of the slaveholders”; as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, helped draft Emancipation Proclamation

October 29, 1864: African-American abolitionist Sojourner Truth says of President Lincoln: “I never was treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man”

*1865: The KKK launches as the “Terrorist Arm” of the Democratic Party

February 5, 1866: U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves

March 30, 1868: Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”

May 20, 1868: Republican National Convention marks debut of African-American politicians on national stage; two – Pinckney Pinchback and James Harris – attend as delegates, and several serve as presidential electors

September 3, 1868: 25 African-Americans in Georgia legislature, all Republicans, expelled by Democrat majority; later reinstated by Republican Congress

September 12, 1868: Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and all other African-Americans in Georgia Senate, every one a Republican, expelled by Democrat majority; would later be reinstated by Republican Congress

September 28, 1868: Democrats in Opelousas, Louisiana murder nearly 300 African-Americans who tried to prevent an assault against a Republican newspaper editor

June 22, 1870: Republican Congress creates U.S. Department of Justice, to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the South

September 6, 1870: Women vote in Wyoming, in FIRST election after women’s suffrage signed into law by Republican Gov. John Campbell

December 12, 1870: Republican Joseph Hayne Rainey becomes the first Black duly elected by the people and the first Black in the US House of Representatives

In 1870 and 1871, along with Revels (R-Miss) and Rainey (R-SC), other Blacks were elected to Congress from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia – all Republicans.

October 10, 1871: Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousands

October 18, 1871: After violence against Republicans in South Carolina, President Ulysses Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux Klan

November 18, 1872: Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”

1875 (March 1): The Civil Rights Act of 1875 passes. It is the First Anti-Discrimination Law in America

March 1, 1875: Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, signed by Republican President U.S. Grant

Republican support: 92%
Democrat support: 0%

September 20, 1876: Former state Attorney General Robert Ingersoll (R-IL) tells veterans: “Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat… I am a Republican because it is the only free party that ever existed”

January 10, 1878: U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage; Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before election of Republican House and Senate guaranteed its approval in 1919

June 18, 1912: African-American Robert Church, founder of Lincoln Leagues to register black voters in Tennessee, attends 1912 Republican National Convention as delegate; eventually serves as delegate at 8 conventions

*1914: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson Segregates the Federal Government and the US Military – REVERSING 50 years of previous integration

*1915: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson showcases the first movie ever shown in the White House – Birth of a Nation – The Ku Klux Klan Epic

August 1, 1916: Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, former New York Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, endorses women’s suffrage constitutional amendment; he would become Secretary of State and Chief Justice

May 21, 1919: Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no

December 8, 1924: Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis argues in favor of “separate but equal”

June 12, 1929: First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country

August 17, 1937: Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmation

June 24, 1940: Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order it

August 8, 1945: Republicans condemn Harry Truman’s surprise use of the atomic bomb in Japan. The whining and criticism goes on for years. It begins two days after the Hiroshima bombing, when former Republican President Herbert Hoover writes to a friend that “[t]he use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.”

February 18, 1946: Appointed by Republican President Calvin Coolidge, federal judge Paul McCormick ends segregation of Mexican-American children in California public schools

July 11, 1952: Republican Party platform condemns “duplicity and insincerity” of Democrats in racial matters

June 5, 1956: Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” law

October 19, 1956: On campaign trail, Vice President Richard Nixon vows: “American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school – public or private – with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination, and prejudice have no place in America”

November 6, 1956: African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President

September 24, 1957: Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools

June 23, 1958: President Dwight Eisenhower meets with Martin Luther King and other African-American leaders to discuss plans to advance civil rights

February 4, 1959: President Eisenhower informs Republican leaders of his plan to introduce 1960 Civil Rights Act, despite staunch opposition from many Democrats

June 1, 1963: Democrat Governor George Wallace announces defiance of court order issued by Republican federal judge Frank Johnson to integrate University of Alabama

September 29, 1963: Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High School

Moving into the Lyndon Johnson era, here’s some background:

Johnson had a long history of voting with the south against civil rights, and prior to 1957 he voted 100% with the South, including voting against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960.

After the Civil Rights Acts, the southern Dixiecrats who opposed civil rights, dissolved and most returned to the Democrat party, although if you listen to Democrat rhetoric you would think all Dixiecrats became Republicans. Some did, but most did not, and to name a few that did not: Richard Russel, Mendell Rivers, William Fulbright, Robert Byrd, Fritz Hollings and Al Gore, Sr., the father of former VP Al Gore.

William Fulbright was the left of the Left, stauch apologist for Stalin, and mentor of the first Black president, Bill Clinton. Fulbright was a Dixiecrat and a life-long Democrat.

Prior to 1936 those Blacks who could vote generally supported Republican Presidential candidates. The GOP was the party of Abraham Lincoln, after all. Even Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal failed to completely break the bond between Blacks and the GOP. Ike received strong support from Black voters in 1952 and 1956. Then came the 1960 election. John F. Kennedy, no strong civil rights crusader before and even during most of his presidency, did make a special and emotion appeal to the Black community by telephoning coretta Scott King after her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King, had been jailed. It worked, helping him to carry a majority of black votes.

Senator John F. Kennedy had opportunities to vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1957, but instead voted to send it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Instead, the vote happened and it passed with the help of Republicans, even if the bil was not all it could have been. After becoming president, JFK introduced NO new civil rights proposals.

June 9, 1964: Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by Democrat Senator Strom Thurmond and U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who served in the U.S. Senate until his death in mid-2010.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

1969-1964: President Nixon doubled aid to Black colleges, raised civil rights enforcement budget 800%, appointed more blacks to federal posts and high positions than any other President, including LBJ, instituted mandated quotas for Blacks in unions and Black scholars in Colleges and Universities, opened the Office of Minority Business Enterprise, raised purchases from Black businesses from $9 MILLION to $153 MILLION, increased small business loans to Black businesses 1000%, increased US deposits in minority-owned banks 4,000%, [refused aid to segregated schools] and raised the share of desegregated schools from 10% to 70%. Source: WND

August 6, 1965: Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

July 8, 1970: In special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon calls for reversal of policy of forced termination of Native American rights and benefits

September 17, 1971: Former Ku Klux Klan member and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black (D-AL) retires from U.S. Supreme Court; appointed by FDR in 1937, he had defended Klansmen for racial murders

February 19, 1976: President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII

September 15, 1981: President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs

January 25, 2001: U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee declares school choice to be “Educational Emancipation”

March 19, 2003: Republican U.S. Representatives of Hispanic and Portuguese descent form Congressional Hispanic Conference

May 23, 2003: U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduces bill to establish National Museum of African American History and Culture

February 26, 2004: Hispanic Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) condemns racist comments by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL); she had called Asst. Secretary of State Roger Noriega and several Hispanic Congressmen “a bunch of white men…you all look alike to me.”

*The following is from StolenHistory video:

Since “Black” Leadership joined the Progressive Democratic Party

and chose

“Power over Principle:”

“Black” Out-of-Wedlock Birthrate has grown to 70%, breaking apart the “Black” Family Unit

The following video is excellent and is probably one you have not seen. It doesn’t use sensationalism – just tells a story beginning with Georgian Tunis Campbell and Ulysses S. Grant.

Tunis Campbell

An ardent Republican [Tunis Campbell], he participated in the political revolution that Reconstruction launched. Following the passage of the 1867 Reconstruction Act, he actively registered blacks to vote and gave speeches on behalf of the Republicans. He was elected a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention, served as a justice of the peace, and was elected to the Georgia State Senate. Source

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This is blatant propaganda, a gross distortion of history for political purposes, and as such, I must condemn it. The early Republican Party billed itself as “the White People’s Party.” They opposed slavery in the territories because (1) they hated blacks and didn’t want them to live among whites, (2) they didn’t want to compete with slave labor, a legitimate concern, and (3) they didn’t want the territories to enter the Southern bloc and provide additional congressional votes against the North’s ruinous tariffs.

Stogie, I can back up everything in the post. It surprises me that you are so adamant about this. Saying that what I have written is “blatant propaganda” is a bit strong. No where does it say every Republican was anti-slavery just as it does not say every Democrat was pro-slavery.

You used the word “they.” That’s propaganda. What is in the article is truthful and it is how the Civil Rights bill passed.

Markam

*Stogie = Stooge Typical uneducated response of someone that refuses to accept the facts because they have made up their mind. True racism is the Democratic party keeping minorities in economic slavery because they cant keep them in real chains anymore. This artical is factual and well documented.

Markam, thank you. We cannot change how slavery came to this country and was promoted, but we can educate about those who did the right thing and turned it around. We can also call out those who lie about it today.

kathleen

Some simply cannot read and comprehend, stuck in their own beliefs and lies….they will be the handful you vote for Obama. No hope for Stogie types.

Thank you for reposting this article and it’s information. My first encounter with your website was when I came across this information. I’ve always been impressed with the content and value of the information that you provide here. This article and many others are invaluable and priceless.

The article you posted on the History of Israel and the Middle East also falls into the category of invaluable and priceless. For those who may not have seen the Israel and the Middle East article, start looking for it. Most will receive a important history lesson and some information they may not have known.

Thank you for your contributions, Maggie.

[As for Stogie, he/she like other dopey libs are puffing on stoogie’s and are in denial. But, what else is new?]

Geo, thanks so much. The Israel posts you mentioned are under my banner under the tab titled “Israel.” So glad it was helpful to you. And thank you for reading and commenting here. I learn so much from my commenters.

May 13, 2009 The Klu Klux Klan was founded as a Democrat proxy group. Many black Americans served in the U.S. Goverment in the 1800’s and beyond as part of the “Radical Republican” party. In 1912 the ‘Progressive’ Democrat, President Woodrow Wilson instituted racial segregation into the Federal Government. Many blacks were subsequently pushed out of the Federal Government.